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Narrow lead for SPD in German warmup elections

The two leading German parties are almost on the same level of support ahead of Sunday's parliamentary election in North Rhine-Westphalia. Schulz's SPD party leads narrowly with 32.5 percent against 31.6 percent for Merkel's CDU, according to a SPON poll published by Spiegel. The liberal FDP comes third with 12.6 percent support. Sunday's election will offer a strong indication on whether Merkel can win September's general elections.